Yesterday I was invited to the home of the delightful family that takes care of my farm in the winter when we are not here. They are originally from a very remote, mountainous part of Mexico - a place where running water and electricity is few and far between and not in people's homes for the most part. If they want to eat meat they have to raise, slaughter, and butcher it. If they want milk, they have to raise it and milk it. There are no Publix', Walmart, or StopnShop where these folks were from, and they had no refrigeration.
Now, in an American's concept of a picnic or BBQ, if they were to visualize it, might be some prepared chicken legs, a 6 foot deli sandwich, and maybe some cole slaw with hard boiled eggs... all wrapped in some food plastic wrap... and none of it prepared by the participants.
(All Photos taken with my cell phone...)
The Cook
The Business End (Notice the fancy table)
The Guest of Honor
Meanwhile the hog was boiled in its own oil over an outside wood fire and then served with tortilla's and scorching hot homemade salsa and lime juice. The Cold Beer flowed, my Spanish improved, and there was much rejoicing...
To Life!
20 comments:
Are they one of those God-awful families of illegal Mexican immigrants? You know the type ... they who do all the work "Americans" are too lazy to do, like landscaping, meat cutting, childcare, assembly line labor, doing all the scut work for restaurants, meanwhile stealing all the free health care paid for by Americans? We tea baggers want those mangy tax-avoiding people out of here!! Right after they clean our houses and get our children off to school.
They are perfectly legal.. He owns a local business - and I retain the services of his company - and has 3 American born children in local schools. His guests and friends? I cannot speak for. When I met him last year, I expressed concern about his status to which he replied:
"Come to my house tomorrow with your wife and children to meet my wife and children. My wife and I are legal residents and my children are American. I own a local business."
What a personal way to do business! We did go to his home for a roasted goat feast and found them to be our kind of folks.
The rest of your point is well taken. I imagine that his business is a jack of all trades kind of operation, one of the services of which is the care and feeding of my animals during the winter, and likely doing many of the things you mention. In doing so, this young man owns a home with little left on his mortgage, his trucks without debt, and raises all of his meat, milk, and eggs on his 6 acre homestead.
What an American!
Those family friends of yours are going to save the United States. Mexico sure doesn't want them.
"He who births the most, wins."
The Mexicans like to have kids. Their kids are already running all over Chicago (1/3rd of the young population here). If I don't watch it, I'll hit one with my LeSabre. :) 4-5-6-7 kids per family means that the tired, old, non-procreating white people of America (like me) will have young people to pay in taxes for the benefits we demand as Americans. We are being saved by these "illegal" people.
Now, eventually the Mexican girls will start working more in offices, and revert back to the typical two children per family -- unlike their mothers (the girls will feel safer about their own old age, and the Catholicism will fade). Then we'll have to look for a new immigrant group to save the United States ... the Chinese or Muslims probably (Muslims have 8 children per family). But for now, Juan and Juanita are fine with me.
Hey Bur,
Do you ever go to the really poor sections of the City? I see all the time what large family size does for most families--it makes them very poor. So it sounds like your in favor of some sort of Mexican-American Ponzi scheme to prop of SOS and the rest of the system--amidst the decline in global energy/oil?
Sure as the economy struggles more immigration will go over well. Just look at history/ and current countries with all their ethic cooperation. This while far too many people complaining about Obama being a Muslim or not being a citizen.
So waves of immigrant families are going to be the salvation of America's nanny state eh? You must drink some pretty strong Kool-aid brotha :)
-Meiyo
Immigration is only a problem for the old, white people whose jobs are being "taken." The real threat is the Chinese who work for 10 cents an hour, not the Mexicans.
And yes, I've been to the west and south sides of Chicago. The poor sections are predominately African-American.
After 30 years, the percentage of black people in America is still at 10%. Contrary to what everyone was predicting in the 1970s-1980s, the black population didn't end up having all that many (welfare) children. Like I said .. 10% after 30 years.
As a culture, the black population is very busy eliminating itself. And the shortage of real jobs isn't helping. More young black people in jail than in college. An unhealthy resistance to talk about HIV in the black community -- the "down low" thing (HIV went from being a gay thing to being a poverty (black) thing). The black people are putting themselves out of business.
The Latinos/Latinas are leaping right over the African-Americans in importance, partly cause of their size. The blacks are all excited about the Obama thing (I was an Obama supporter too). I don't think the blacks yet realize that Obama will be the period at the end of their sentence.
I'm not sure this is where Greg expected this conversation to go. (maybe he is more cynical than I give hime credit for and expected exactly this). What I took from from was this. What a great day. Good neighbors are your best preps. This reminds me of our cider pressing parties. Lots of good, local food, laughter and comaraderie. Good times for sure. Thanks for sharing.
As of the last census in 2000, black families avg 6.7 children, and last data was estimated 13% of the population. This number is rough since there are large numbers of biracial afr-amer's now, Obama being an example. But blacks also have highest youth death rate etc.
Clearly, the US will be changing with roughly 45% of children under 5 being minorities.
Family size in theory can still be a strength eventually, if children are progressively taught responsibility, help out with the child rearing as they get older, work part-time jobs and help grow some food when possible, or in CSA's etc in some areas. But sadly, it becomes a welfare trap of sorts for many single mother's whom can't make enough money to make working worthwile, and each child represents more nanny state bene's--particularly with the trend of Mental illnesses in children being used to be given SSI money, with an avg of 600$ per child diagnosed, this can add up quickly, and minimum wage jobs can't compete with doing nothing. So for many "families" their are incentives to do nothing.
But Anyway, its nice to see people doing some old school bonding and making good use of animals, rather than just anamorphizing them and putting them in little outfits and trying to fulfil unment social needs via their dogs etc.
-Meiyo
Bur,
Explain how the nanny state won't ruin the Mexicans just like it ruined the blacks? In the mid 60's, the illegitimacy rate in our black population was about 20%, pretty much the national average among all races. It is now about 70%. This process started immediately after the Great Society legislation was enacted. Fathers left their families in droves so that their families could collect welfare, which provided better income than they could. LBJ and his Congress created the inner city hell holes that we now can't get rid of. The current generation of Latino immigrants came here with a work ethic, but the desertion and illegitimacy problem is growing in the Latino community as well. The chances that the next generation will maintain their parents' work ethic under present circumstances are next to nil.
Regards,
Coal Guy
I'm going to dispute the 6.7 and 13% figures. If the average family in America is only having 2.1 children (all the younger families I know of are not having more than 2), the black families are nowhere near having an AVERAGE of 6.7.
Hey Carbon!
The Mexicans don't have the "slavery" tradition, which I'm sure would be devastating to any culture. The Mexicans are willing to work hard, come to America to be an asset, not a liability, shun welfare and they have the damn pope watching over their shoulders.;)
The young Latin community does have two problems, according to a Chicago Sun-Times expose last month ... the girls are pressured to get pregnant too fast, and the boys are pressured to start working immediately and forego college. They also drink too much, smoke too much and make a mess too much -- at least that's the case with MY friends. :)
Black men who can't get real jobs aren't able to be effective fathers. They didn't leave the family so that their wives could get welfare (mostly). A guy with no job who wants a job is damaged goods. I need to watch "Hoop Dreams" again to see how the drug selling and lack of employment made Mr. Agee (a reasonably decent father to start) leave his family and his basketball-hopeful kid.
Re: Inner city hellholes
Coalguy--
With all due respect, the inner city hell holes were in place long before LBJ came to power.
Best, Marshall
Bur,
The 6.7% number was something I read awhile back, and was not avg birth rate per person, but percentage increase at the time of African Americans, while Hispanics were slightly higher at 7.1% (this being about 9 years ago). So I was incorrect in how I presented that data.
We are going through a mini-baby boom in the last couple years, much of it pushed by the rise in teenage pregnancy according to many sources.
Demographics, although a major factor in some areas of the country, are not a serious issue--although lack of assimilation will be a challenge, or we will have "little italy's" type effect in the US in larger sections--since the US still tends to self-segregate by wealth and then by ethnicity.
Ultimately we have human/national problems that will make many of these "issues" become sideshows--unless used as scapegoats by political groups--which I think is likely to happen as times get tougher.
-Meiyo
Almost everyone who came to this country assimilated, and if they didn't, their kids did. :) The United States doesn't have a bad system to grow up in. The capitalism and freedom thing make doing the "American" thing preferable to a lot of places in the world. They still keep coming.
Mexico has no idea of the resource they are giving up to us. They wasted their oil resources on building ornate government buildings and lots of baseball parks. Half their population is dirt poor. What that oil could have done ... sheer waste.
There has been a slight rise in teenage pregnancies, that is true. Not sure how much of the Mexican population is responsible but I'll bet they are in there somewhere.
We have also been going thru a "late stage baby boomlet" of late, and the numbers recently showed the number of babies born here hitting a new high. It still cannot come close to the baby boom (1946-1964), when the women were having an average of four children each.
The Mexicans have their pathologies, that is true. But they have the birthrate on their side for now. Theirs is positive and we honkys are negative.
Yes, the inner city hell holes have been around for a long time. They were filled with Irish who worked their way up and out, then Italians and Eastern Europeans, who worked their way up and out. The next great wave of "immigrants" was blacks from the rural south. They are still there and with 3/4 fatherless, always will be. It is social destruction on an unprecedented scale.
Regards,
Coal Guy
Part One:
Folks, as I've mentioned here in past comments, I work in a residential treatment center for "at-risk" teenage boys in a Boston suburb. I've been there for over 8 years. Previous to that I did environmental education for a major Boston area environmental group.
Believe me when I say, the education I have gotten, working in residential treatment, in Boston's biggest and best known social service agency, has been eye opening.
I do not have the space here to correct everything you've said here Bureaucrat, but I assure you, what is happening in communities of color, is far worse - far, far worse, than what you allude to. I could now write a book on what I've seen - how handouts have destroyed the family, the work ethic, and the lives of people on the receiving end of all the various government handouts. I have never considered myself a fan of the Rabid Right, the Sean Hannity's, Rush Limbaughs, etc. I never cared to agree with the vitriol they constantly spew. But I have to tell you, after doing the work that I have over the past several years, if I ever run into those two guys, I owe them one hell of an apology because I now realize that I work in an agency that is a textbook, museum-quality example of an organization destroyed by political correctness, diversity-mongering, and liberalism. Political correctness not only is destroying these communities our agency serves, but our social service agency along with those communities. We pretty much only hire people of color for direct care now. Despite having nearly 170 acres of the most amazing farm and forest campus anywhere in the immediate Boston area, our campus gardens are failing for lack of participation, our ball field lies unused. Kids are bored, take their excess energy out on peers as fighting and stealing, and do nothing else except sit around waiting to go to the mall. Theft has become rampant in our facility. Our meals, our house structure, schedules for the kids - it's all gone to hell. Why? Well, because our hiring priorities changed drastically after our agency took on a former person-of-color politician turned-celebrity-CEO. With a rabid reverse-racist at the top, our new hiring managers are fixed on quotas rather than hiring people competent to do the job, rather than working and living with kids in a holistic way, at our unique campus. Our hiring people seem to think that they have to chose between competent people who can work with kids in a rural, outdoor setting, and those hiring candidates that are of color. What racist BS that is.
Part Two:
Previous to this life, I worked as a fast food manager. My father was a multi-unit Burger King Franchisee. I also worked as a manager in another well-known Boston restaurant operation. I worked in and with all manner of diverse communities. I returned to school and got a graduate degree in education. I did my student teaching in an elementary school in one of Boston's poorest, minority communities. Never in all those previous work situations, did I ever feel that the place was coming down because of misplaced Liberal policies. Never did I feel uncomfortable because I was white and was surrounded by minorities, but now, where I work, it's much different.
Communities of color - poor communities, have had a couple of generations now of living with the life-destroying effects of government handouts. Daddy is gone. He's been gone for years because mommy has a bunch of govt. checks that allowed her to kick him out. The boys especially, grow up to be angry, illiterate, and driven by sex and crime, without a dad around. You cannot keep them in a classroom. Then kids have kids. I've met 31 year old grandmas. Meanwhile the Commonwealth of Massachusetts pays over $130K per kid, per year for the tuition, room, and board in our facility. Meanwhile taxpayers also pay for food assistance for mommy back at her subsidized apartment, while her newest boyfriend abuses the other step kids still home in the apartment while he's helping make MORE babies to someday also send to my facility, keeping my residential treatment center busy for years to come.
I'll stop here because this is going to become an incoherent rant. If we had this conversation over a few drinks I could tell you FAR more and then I think even YOU would be bemoaning what government has done to poor communities and communities of color. As for Peak Oil and the coming collapse, these communities are SO ill-prepared for the future, it's not funny. Let's just say all in all, it's the very definition of a clusterfuck.
I've about given up on missionary work myself. I'm soon taking my money, moving away from MA, probably to NH. I've found other, more local, more sustainable work there as well.
Goodbye and good luck to the mess I'm leaving behind. It's too bad we cannot pass a law, requiring a government politician or bureaucrat to take in one or two of the destroyed kids I work with and talk about here. It would be justice well served ind
Part Three:
It would be justice well served indeed.
Kathy:
Exactly. Just sharing an interesting experience that I had with people who had not lost their culture into the McDonald's vat of tasteless sh*t - and a hat tip for their resourcefulness.
I'm not sure why you have to correct what I said, Anonymous :) We said the same things, you from your vantage point and me from mine. We both agree that giving a a person a fish to eat for a day is not a good long-term plan.
But let's be objective here. Your situation may not be isolated. Hell, every kid, no matter what color they are, wants things, and doesn't want to work for any of them. I MYSELF want things that I don't want to work for. :)
Capitialism is derived from that very premise: human beings are greedy, lazy and power-hungry, no matter what color they are. In your case, it's the blacks, who have had the biggest negative impact of lost jobs of any group.
Fathers leave because there are no jobs to derive their strength from -- their feeling of self-worth. The Latin dads may stay around longer, but their kids (five of my Latino friends come to mind :)) are just as money-grubbing and couch-bound as the kids you depict.
The answer keeps coming back to the same thing: jobs and debt. With all the good jobs being outsourced, and all the debt being accumulated due to the reduced income from those lost jobs, you end up with widespread financial pathos. We can agree on that, I think. :)
FYI I plan to retire/retreat in 13 years, 9 months and 2 days to either south Florida or Puerto Rico myself. :)
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